Carrier bag

ABSTRACT

In a plastics carrier bag comprising two confronting walls which are interconnected by welded side seams, one said wall is provided with a form-retaining handle at the bag mouth and the other wall with a slit through which the handle can be passed to close the bag mouth. The slit is located along substantially the fold line of an inwardly turned flap of said other wall, the flap being engaged by said side seams to define a pocket for receiving a tongue portion of said one wall carrying the handle. The tongue portion is bounded at the sides by incisions which, at a level corresponding to the free edge of the flap, are directed away from the side seams. The incisions may be interrupted so that the tongue portion remains attached to the side seams until it is to be inserted in the pocket.

United States Patent 1 Marquardt et al.

[451 Sept. 24, 1974 CARRIER BAG [75] inventors: Bruno Marquardt,

Osnabruck-Nane; Frank Bosse, lbbenburen-Dorenthe, both of Germany [73] Assignee: Windmoller & Holscher, Lengerich of Westphalia, Germany [22] Filed: Apr. 4, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 240,922

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 8, 1971 Germany 2117224 [52] US. Cl 229/54 R [51] Int. Cl B65d 33/06 [58] Field of Search 229/54 R, 54 C; ISO/1.7

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,036,755 5/1962 Stone 229/51 TS 3,693,867 9/1972 Schwarzkopf 229/54 R Primary Examiner-William l. Price Assistant Examiner-Stephen P. Garbe Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Fleit, Gipple & Jacobson [5 7 ABSTRACT In a plastics carrier bag comprising two confronting walls which are interconnected by welded side seams, one said wall is provided with a form-retaining handle at the bag mouth and the other wall with a slit through which the handle can be passed to close the bag mouth. The slit is located along substantially the fold line of an inwardly turned flap of said other wall, the flap being engaged by said side seams to define a pocket for receiving a tongue portion of said one wall carrying the handle. The tongue portion is bounded at the sides by incisions which, at a level corresponding to the free edge of the flap, are directed away from the side seams. The incisions may be interrupted so that the tongue portion remains attached to the side seams until it is to be inserted in the pocket.

9 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures CARRIER BAG The invention relates to a carrier bag which is made from plastics film and comprises two confronting walls, of which only one wall has welded to it a handle of form-retaining plastics material and the other wall is provided with a slit at substantially the same level as the base of the handle and with an extension which is folded into the bag during manufacture and which, for the purpose of forming a flap, is welded at its side edges to the sides of said other wall from which it extends, wherein the said one wall is so shortened at both sides at marginal portions corresponding to the flap when the bag is in a ready-for-use condition so that the said one wall forms a tongue which is free from welded side seams of the bag.

In known carrier bags of this kind, incision lines bounding the tongue are placed so that at the level of the lower edge of the flap they extend towards the sides of the bag and thus intersect the welded side seams. In use, it has been found that especially during filling or under the effect of bulky or unwieldy contents the bags can easily tear at these positions and, since these tears start at the inside and extend downwardly along the weld seams or outwardly through the weld seams to the outer edges of the bag, at least the appearance of the bag and probably also its usefulness are detrimentally influenced.

The invention aims to provide an improved carrier bag in which the danger of tears is minimised at the side seams during lifting of the tongue and when carrying bulky contents but without producing apertures through which rain water and dust may reach the bag contents.

According to the invention, the lateral incision lines which bound the tongue extend, in the vicinity of the lower edge of the flap, away from the welded side seams and towards the middle of the bag. Tensile forces set up during opening of the bag or as a result of bulky contents are not kept quite remote from the region of the side seams and therefore tearing of the seam or of the wall carrying the tongue is avoided.

As suggested in our previous application (German Application 2020549 and British Application 29992/70), the incision lines bounding the tongue may, prior to use of the bag, be in the form of lines of weakness bridged by unincised portions which connect the tongue to lateral portions of the said one wall that are engaged by the said welded side seams. This provides the advantage that the bags may be made without producing stamped out waste pieces of plastics film the removal of which from the bag-making machine can be extraordinarily difficult and expensive by reason of the static loading of the film. Also, by leaving the lateral portions of the said one wall attached to the side seams there is less likelihood of rain entering the closed bag because these lateral portions extend right up to the mouth of the bag.

The incision lines may be extended upwardly towards the bag mouth so that the ends of the incisions run parallel rather than transversely to the direction in which the bag material is stressed, thereby minimising tear extensions even further.

Preferably, the incision lines extend, as viewed from the bag mouth, vertically downwardly and then along a curved path towards their downwardly diverging principal direction. By means of starting the incision lines at right angles to the bag mouth one avoids undesirable points on the lateral portions that remain attached to the welded side seams. The diverging course makes it easier to insert the tongue.

Particularly effective anchoring of the upper corners of the tongue behind the flap to prevent these corners from being pushed out under the forces set out by the bag contents can be achieved if the tongue comprises a downwardly converging portion.

In another form of the invention, the incision lines diverge downwardly from the mouth and then extend arcuately, thereby facilitating insertion of the tongue under the flap and nevertheless ensuring good anchoring beneath the flap by the rounded part of the enlarged central portion of the tongue.

The incision lines could also extend substantially parallel to the welded side seams.

In all forms of the incision lines, their ends extend towards the middle of the bag by following a curved path.

The particularly desirable form of the invention utilising the teaching of our aforementioned older application by providing unincised bridging portions gives the advantage that the tongue remains attached to the welded side seams before the bag is used, i.e. during transport and storage of the bags, thereby preventing the tongue from drooping or being displaced. The provision of the unincised bridging portions is not however essential.

Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a carrier bag;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section through the FIG. 1

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation of the FIG. 1 bag when in use;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal section of the FIG. 3 condition of the bag, and

FIGS. 5 to 7 are fragmentary side elevations of moditied carrier bags.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, the carrier bag comprises a front wall 1, a back wall 2 and a folded-over flap 3 which is formed by an extension of the back wall 2 and which is provided with a slit 4 through which there can be passed a handle 5 which is welded to the front wall I by means of a bar 21 of the handle. The front wall, back wall and flap are interconnected at the sides of the bag by means of weld seams 6 and 7. At the top, the front wall 1 is formed with a tongue 9 which extends in height from the free edge 8 of the flap 3 up to the mouth of the bag and which, after filling of the bag, is inserted beneath the flap 3, the handle 5 being passed through the slit '4. The bag can then be carried by the handle and will be closed against the penetration of rain and dust.

At the sides, the tongue 9 is bounded by lines 10 and 11 of weakness so that it is not engaged by the side seams 6, 7 and so that, after it has been torn along the lines of weakness, is freely movable for insertion beneath the flap 3. The lines of weakness are formed by incisions, each of which is interrupted only once by bridging portions 12. A total of two bridging portions, one at each side of the bag, suffices to hold the tongue to the rest of the bag until the bag is ready for use but if this advantage is not important the bridging portions 12 may be dispensed with to leave the incisions 10, 11 uninterrupted.

The ends of the incision lines 10, l 1 at the level of the I free lower edge 8 of the flap 3 are directed away from the side seams 6, 7 as indicated at 17. The lowest points of these incisions preferably coincide accurately with the edge 8 of the flap so that rain and dust can likewise not enter easily at this position. In the drawings the point 17 is shown out of registry with the edge 8 merely in order to give a clearer indication of the shape of the incisions.

A terminal portion 18 of each incision is directed towards the bag mouth. If tearing occurs at all, it would start at the terminal portions 18 but, since the terminal portions are directed substantially parallel to the direction in which the bag wall 1 is pulled during use, transverse forces which would tend to extend the tears will not arise. Preferably the parts 17 and 18 of each incision and a transitional portion 19 are formed arcuately to minimise tearing even further. Since the incision lines neither intersectthe side scams 6, 7 nor even reach them, tears along the side seams or transversely thereto are avoided.

The remaining course of each incision line 10, 11 may be chosen to meet the requirements or wishes of the customer. To facilitate introduction of the tongue it preferably converges upwardly. This is the case in FIGS. 1 to 4. However, to avoid the formation of a point at the corner wall portions 13, 14, the part 20 of each incision is vertical again.

If easy introduction of the tongue is sacrificed in favour of better anchoring of the corner portions which are not engaged by the bar 21 of the handle 5, then, to prevent these corner portions from being pressed out by the bag contents, the incisions may diverge upwardly as shown in FIG. 5. In this case the additional weld seams 15,- 16 of FIGS. 1 to 4 can be omitted.

A compromise is represented by the FIG. 6 embodiment in which the incisions are outwardly curved, the upper part of the tongue being convergent to facilitate its insertion beneath the flap 3 and its central part being wide to provide good anchoring.

Vertical incisions running substantially parallel to the side scams 6, 7 are also possible as is shown in FIG. 7, where the corner or end portions 13, 14 of the front wall 1 are very narrow and the tongue is as wide as possible.

We claim:

1. A carrying bag made of plastic material comprising two opposing walls, side seams uniting edges of said opposing walls, a carrying handle made of rigid plastic material mounted on one of said walls, the other one of said walls having a handle-receiving slit on the level of the lower end of said handle and comprising an inwardly turned flap portion extending beyond said slit and included in said side seams, said one wall having an incision line adjacent each of said side seams forming a tongue portion carrying said handle, each incision line being directed away from the side seams and toward the center of the bag in the region of the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.

2. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision line comprises, before the first use of the bag, a plurality of incisions connected by easily tearable portions.

3. The carrier bag of claim 2 in which there is only one easily tearable portion.

4. The carrier bag of claim 2 in which the portions of said one wall between said incisions and said seam lines are sealed at the bag mouth to said other wall.

5. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision line extends upwardly from said region of the level of the lower end of the inturned flap toward the bag mouth.

6. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision extends vertically upwardly from said region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap toward the bag mouth and follows a curved path in said region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.

7. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which said tongue comprises a downwardly converging portion.

8. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which the incisions diverge downwardly from the bag mouth and then extend arcuately in the region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.

9. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which the incisions extend substantially parallel to the side seams in the region between the bag mouth and the region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap. 

1. A carrying bag made of plastic material comprising two opposing walls, side seams uniting edges of said opposing walls, a carrying handle made of rigid plastic material mounted on one of said walls, the other one of said walls having a handlereceiving slit on the level of the lower end of said handle and comprising an inwardly turned flap portion extending beyond said slit and included in said side seams, said one wall having an incision line adjacent each of said side seams forming a tongue portion carrying said handle, each incision line being directed away from the side seams and toward the center of the bag in the region of the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.
 2. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision line comprises, before the first use of the bag, a plurality of incisions connected by easily tearable portions.
 3. The carrier bag of claim 2 in which there is only one easily tearable portion.
 4. The carrier bag of claim 2 in which the portions of said one wall between said incisions and said seam lines are sealed at the bag mouth to said other wall.
 5. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision line extends upwardly from said region of the level of the lower end of the inturned flap toward the bag mouth.
 6. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which each incision extends vertically upwardly from said region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap toward the bag mouth and follows a curved path in said region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.
 7. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which said tongue comprises a downwardly converging portion.
 8. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which the incisions diverge downwardly from the bag mouth and then extend arcuately in the region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap.
 9. The carrier bag of claim 1 in which the incisions extend substantially parallel to the side seams in the region between the bag mouth and the region on the level of the lower end of the inturned flap. 